A Level Business Studies - Leadership Style

Introduction 

This post will be looking at and exploring the management techniques of James Dyson (founder of Dyson) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon).

James Dyson is a British inventor who founded the Dyson company. He invented the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, and is worth £5 billion. Dyson has machines in over 65 countries, and has over 1,000 engineers worldwide. They strive for more ideas and more invention every day.

Jeff Bezos is the founder, chairman and CEO of Amazon.com. He is an American technology entrepreneur and investor who is worth 66.7 billion US dollars, making him the 3^rd richest person in the world on the Forbes list of billionaires. His company, Amazon, is the world’s largest online retailer and provides customers with products and services. Founded in 1994, Amazon was initially set up in Bezos’ garage, but ballooned in size due to the rapid growth of the internet.

Leadership style

James Dyson’s leadership style appears to be relaxed due to the innovative and creative side of the company. Dyson himself claims that he is a “pretty dreadful” manager, as he is more interested in working with a group of people to achieve a goal than leading them to success. He prioritizes experiencing what his employees do as he believes it allows people to try out their ideas and get involved which is a crucial part of his company. 

Dyson does, however, motivate workers to try something more challenging in the workplace, rather than choose the easy choice. This reflects the business goal of Dyson, which is to be the “first to market globally with the industry’s most inventive technology”. These factors imply that Dyson is a democratic leader. His workers are all highly skilled which means he can trust them, and he is highly motivating as he often gets involved and experiences what his employees do.

However, it could be argued that Dyson changes his leadership style to match the situation he is faced with. Although there is evidence to show that he is a very involved leader which suggests he is democratic, there is also some evidence to suggest that he may be autocratic too. In his earlier years, he worked on projects with very little input from his peers and co-workers in order to stay focused on his task and perform to the best of his ability.

In terms of the Blake Mouton grid, Dyson would fit into the team leader quarter. This is due to his thirst for experiencing what his employees do, and encouraging them to get involved with his company's creation process. It could be said that his company goal requires him to do this, as they strive for innovation.

Jeff Bezos’ style is very different to James Dyson’s. He is mainly task-orientated, meaning he focuses more on the job and execution of the business than his employees. He looks into the future with his business, and makes decisions which will has a positive impact on the company in years to come. Strategy is something that is important to him, as he pushes himself to work hard and succeed whilst still trying to service the customer appropriately.

Bezos has been criticised in the media for showing little to no care about his employees conditions. The environment in which his employees work is tough enough as it is, and the Telegraph reported that one woman with breast cancer was put on 'performance-improvement plans'. In addition to this, Bezos apparently treats his workers “like cattle” in an attempt to make them work harder. This type of leadership shows very little faith in staff, as he cannot seem to trust them to perform well. Behaviour like this would see him fall into McGregor's theory X because of the intense culture of his company's workplace.

From the many recounts from past employees and a quote from Bezos about Amazon (“friendly and intense, but if push comes to shove we'll settle for intense.”) we can see that Bezos' leadership style is autocratic. Elements of other leadership styles are present, although autocratic is most prominent due to the open claims which have been reported on in the news.

Bezos' concern for results would put him into the produce-or-perish quadrant of the Blake Mouton grid. Showing high interest in productivity and little in the well-being of him employees sees him have a stern approach to his business but emphasises his need of success.

Is it effective?

Dyson have excelled at being creative, which is the main goal of the company. This would mean that James Dyson's leadership style is effective because the company has managed to survive for 25 years. On from this, Dyson has maintained it's innovative ways which could be down to James Dyson's leadership style. His involvement inspires and motivates many of his employees to work hard and find solutions which are not obvious, therefore allowing new ideas and inventions. Since Dyson's creation, it has moved into 70 countries which could be seen as proof of success.

Amazon is the largest internet-based retailer in the world, which suggests that Jeff Bezos is doing something right. Despite many past employees coming out and saying that they have been treated unfairly and worked in poor conditions, it cannot be said that Bezos' leadership is ineffective. The company has ballooned in size over recent years and managed to branch out into different markets including: video streaming, parcel delivery, food, cloud-computing and publishing. Perhaps Jeff Bezos' tough approach to business is what makes Amazon so successful; he is not distracted and pinpoints what needs to be done in order to triumph.

Conclusion

Although both James Dyson and Jeff Bezos are on opposite ends of the Tannenbaum-Schmidt continuum (Dyson being subordinate centered and Bezos being manager centered) there are some similarities in their leadership styles. Both men blend elements of different leadership styles in order to adapt to the situation they find themselves in. They can be supportive of their staff, but know that there is a limit. What centers their style is their business, as the two are very different and require different things from the leader. In terms of effectiveness, both men are effective as they have seen their company through years which have included many things from recession to bad press. Their unique styles have injected their company with sustainability, which is why both Amazon and Dyson are household names today.

But, both have their differences. As mentioned previously, the two men fall into complete opposite sides of the Tannenbaum-Schmidt continuum. This means that whilst James Dyson consults his employees and develops options based on their ideas, Jeff Bezos simply tells his employees what is going to be done. What divides the two men is the freedom they give their staff, but this difference does not make their styles ineffective, as both work for the environment which they manage.